“In colouring and marking there exists a very appreciable difference, especially in the marking. The back and flanks of the Mweru species are of dark steel-blue, verging almost on black. The face, knees, hocks, fetlocks, and coronets of the feet are quite black—a glossy coal-black. Over the rump the broad crescent-shaped band of white found in C. ellipsiprymnus is absent, the bluish black on the rump gradually toning down into dirty grey at the root of the tail and between the haunches.
“Thus ‘Kringgat,’ the name by which the Dutch of Southern Africa know the Waterbuck, would not be characteristic of the Mweru animal.
“In the case of C. ellipsiprymnus running from one, the white band over the rump is so conspicuous a feature as to catch the eye in itself, and draw attention to the form of the animal disappearing between the trunks of trees, where otherwise in many instances it would escape notice. But with the Mweru Waterbuck running from one, the absence of the white band is at once apparent. I noticed the deficiency before even examining a specimen at close quarters.
“The ‘Chuzwi’ of Mweru is not very plentiful in either Itawa or Kabwiri; all told, during the year I was at Mweru, I doubt if I saw fifty, though of Vardon’s Waterbuck I saw many thousands. It is generally met with in hilly forest country—sometimes on steep rough ground—where Vardon’s Waterbuck does not go, and where one would scarcely expect to see C. ellipsiprymnus.
“I once came upon a troop of five females on the very topmost ridge of the mountains overlooking the Lualaba River—at the most northern point of Mweru Lake—where there were ‘Klipspringers,’ and where climbing with a rifle was anything but easy.
“In all I shot four specimens, two males and two females, all full-grown. Of these I preserved the complete skulls and hides of the males and the hide of one female.
“The larger of the two males was a solitary animal, shot in the forest, near Mputa’s, Kabwiri, east coast of Lake Mweru, September 10th, 1892. The horns measured on the straight 22¼ inches, on the curve 24⅝ inches.
“The other male, which was a smaller animal but had as good horns, and one of the females (the one preserved) were shot on the cliffs north of Karembwi’s, Kabwiri, east coast of Lake Mweru, July 27th, 1892.
“The horns of this male measured on the straight also 22¼ inches, on the curve 24½ inches.
“The second female I shot for meat on the left bank of the Choma River, about due north of Lake ‘Mweru ya Matipa’—the ‘Mweru of Mud,’ as the natives know the smaller Lake Mweru to the east of Lake Mweru proper—October 27th, 1892. The skins of these animals subsequently lost much of their dark colouring, a considerable quantity of the hair coming out (as it will do with the very movable coats of Waterbuck) and the remainder becoming lighter in drying.”